Avanti are in the last chance saloon and they need to understand the urgency of the situation says the Mayor of Greater Manchester as the rail operator has yet to explain how they will restore services between Manchester and London
The Company cut services from three to one per hour last month blaming unofficial work to rule action
Burnham had previously called for the company’s licence to be revoked if services aren’t restored, a decision only the government can take.
Yesterday the Conpany announced that Phil Whittingham,its Managing Director would be stepping down leave on 15 September
“Every day that this continues is a day of damage to the Greater Manchester economy and it cannot be allowed to continue.” said the Mayor adding that
“Weeks ago, the company tried to blame their workers for the problems. However, their inability to produce a rescue plan by the deadline we set has flushed out the truth: it is managers, not the workers, who are responsible for the chaos. In their desperation to blame the unions for everything, the Government has let this company off the hook and let passengers down.
“For Avanti, this is the last chance saloon. They need to understand the urgency of the situation. They should today be making a full public apology for their failures and providing a detailed explanation of the steps they are taking to fix things. Anything less is further evidence that they don’t deserve the privilege of running the UK’s most important train line
